International Copyright Laws

I am very familiar with the copyright laws inside the US, however I recently moved abroad and was just asked about making a character cake. I immediately went into my spiel about how I will do a cake similar in theme, yada yada, copyright law, fines, etc. I was told "This isn't the US". And to that, I had no reply.

Does copyright law hold up internationally? Is anyone familiar with this, or can you point me in the direction of where I can start looking?

On a side note, I would assume that large companies with iconic logos (Disney, Nike, Apple...) have taken measures to copyright / trademark their logos / characters in other countries besides the USA. Disney has themeparks in other countries (Japan, France, Hong Kong and China) which each have their own laws - but I don't think Disney would pick a country that would allow them to protect their assests.